Household survey begins to determine needs of women and children in Palestine

Field workers receive training to measure the height and weight of children for a household survey in Palestine.

By Kumiko Imai and Khaled Abu Khalid

Jerusalem, March 23, 2014 – Ninety Palestinian field workers are conducting house-to house surveys as part of a two month data-collecting exercise which will bring long term benefits to women and children in Gaza and the West Bank.

Following a rigorous two and a half week training course, the field workers set out on March 2 to collect data from 7,375 households in the West Bank and 3,750 households in the Gaza Strip.

The Palestine Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) is being carried out by the government, with the assistance of UNICEF. The field workers are collecting information from households in urban, rural and camp locations, focusing on health, education and child protection.

Organizers say the interviewers are facing two main obstacles; accessing hard to reach areas behind the West Bank Barrier, and collecting all the data they need before the end-of July deadline.

Once the data is collected it will be fed into the Secretary General’s Millennium Development Goals report, which will be released in 2015.

“This survey will help UNICEF and the government to target their programmes to respond to the most pressing needs of these communities in this complex and protracted emergency”, said Sarah Ahmad Mirza, UNICEF Regional MICS Coordinator.